The Classicist Caroline Vout noted that most of the texts dealing with Antinous's biography only dealt with him briefly and were post-Hadrianic in date, thus commenting that "reconstructing a detailed biography is impossible". Īntinous became a symbol of male homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa.
The worship of Antinous proved to be one of the most enduring and popular of cults of deified humans in the Roman empire, and events continued to be founded in his honour long after Hadrian's death.
Hadrian also founded games in commemoration of Antinous to take place in both Antinoöpolis and Athens, with Antinous becoming a symbol of Hadrian's dreams of pan-Hellenism. Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis close to Antinous's place of death, which became a cultic centre for the worship of Osiris-Antinous. Various suggestions have been put forward for how he died, ranging from an accidental drowning to an intentional human sacrifice or suicide.įollowing his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout the Empire. In October 130, as they were part of a flotilla going along the Nile, Antinous died amid mysterious circumstances. Antinous accompanied Hadrian during his attendance of the annual Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens, and was with him when he killed the Marousian lion in Libya. He had become the favourite of Hadrian by 128, when he was taken on a tour of the Roman Empire as part of Hadrian's personal retinue. He was probably introduced to Hadrian in 123, before being taken to Italy for a higher education. Little is known of Antinous's life, although it is known that he was born in Claudiopolis (present day Bolu, Turkey), in the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus. After his premature death before his twentieth birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian's orders, being worshipped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god ( theos) and sometimes merely as a hero ( ἥρως, hḗrōs). 111 – before 30 October 130 ) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite beloved of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Heliopolis, River Nile, Ancient Egypt (now Egypt)Īntinous or Antinoös ( / æ n ˈ t ɪ n oʊ ʌ s/ Greek: Ἀντίνοος 27 November, c. Bust of Antinous from Patras, ( National Archaeological Museum, Athens)Ĭlaudiopolis, Bithynia, Roman Empire (now Bolu, Turkey)